Research & Article

The proposal for the Siamese Constitution in 1885 was initiated by Prince Prisdang, the Siamese minister in Paris, as a counter measure against the colonial powers which were annexing territories under the pretext that people had to be freed from despotic rule and that natural resources should be properly managed for mankind. The proposal was made against the background of the fall of Upper Burma and, to some extent, the progressive ideology of the Young Siamese Club, a secretive “Young Turk” group headed by King Chulalongkorn himself, with Prince Prisdang as one of its members.